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June 12, 2004

Saddam Will Miss Old Buddy Reagan. That was the headline on a wire story posted at Yahoo. It was quickly removed from Yahoo's website (damn that liberal media!), although you can find the story here or here.

"Reagan took the first step in November 1983 when he removed Iraq from the U.S. government's official list of 'nations that support international terrorism.' That opened the door to full diplomatic and economic cooperation between Iraq and the United States. The next month he sent an emissary to Baghdad bearing a personal letter for Saddam. That emissary was none other than current Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld. A declassified official note at the time read: 'Saddam Hussein showed obvious pleasure with the President's letter and Rumsfeld's visits in his remarks.' ...

"Through this time the Reagan administration largely ignored reports that Saddam Hussein was using chemical weapons against the Iranian army and against domestic Kurdish insurgents. ... 'Everything we did was checked with America,' [retired Iraqi Brigadier-General Zekki Daoud Jabber] said. 'They knew our policy was to use chemical weapons on the Iranian army when they entered our territory. We told them that and they continued to help us.'"

The original URL was: "http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/oneworld/20040612/wl_oneworld/6573880421087037788&cid=655&ncid=1480."